If the Right does not promote civil society solutions to the issues facing this demographic, the GOP will continue its leftward drift on social issues.
If the Right does not promote civil society solutions to the issues facing this demographic, the GOP will continue its leftward drift on social issues.
E xit polling from the 2024 election found that Donald Trump won the support of young men by two points, a 29-point swing from Barack Obama’s 2008 victory. This clear response to institutional wokeness and collapse must compel conservatives to offer these voters an image of productive masculinity.
Both the Trump and Kamala Harris campaigns recognized that men between the ages of 18 and 29 were an up-for-grabs demographic. Democrats reached out to the group with finger-wagging and begging. In contrast, Trump ran a gauntlet of alternative media outlets and public appearances at sporting events. In the closing days of the election, Tim Walz awkwardly played Madden with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, while Trump turned out endorsements from former Pittsburgh Steelers Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell.
Young men weren’t won or lost, in Pennsylvania or elsewhere, on the basis of endorsements from onetime NFL greats. There’s a far stronger case that their vote was a response to the country’s hollowed-out institutions. Although many recognize that woke progressivism has nothing to offer them but hostility, left-wing hegemony has nevertheless inculcated in them opposition to the post-war conservative worldview.
American colleges awarded more bachelor’s degrees to women than men for the first time in 1983. The percentage of degrees conferred to males has since dropped below 45 percent. The Title IX and DEI regimes instituted by the Obama and Biden administrations have made elite college campuses actively hostile to young men, just as radical faculty and administrators egg on a reflexive anti-Americanism.
The entertainment young men have long favored has also swung left. ESPN continues to hemorrhage viewers as it leans into women’s sports and progressive politics. Late night comedians have become adjuncts of the Democratic Party. Hence many young men have flocked to Barstool Sports and The Joe Rogan Experience.
It would be a mistake to assume that young men disgusted with wokeness are particularly conservative. Barstool founder and Trump supporter Dave Portnoy has described himself as apolitical and melted down over the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision.
“At what point do you look at the Constitution and say, Hey, this was written by people who had slaves, and maybe not everything is exactly to a tee in the Constitution?” the sexually permissive gambling mogul complained.
The 47-year-old Portnoy’s lifestyle is mostly in line with that of young men below 30. One-quarter of them have participated in online betting in the last year, while 10 percent have a gambling problem. Sports betting is currently legal in 38 states. Meanwhile, more than a quarter of young men have consumed marijuana within the last month.
Portnoy, Rogan, and their woke critics apparently see eye to eye on very little, but they are supporters and totems of the same culture that encourages men to indulge their inclinations to vice. Too many men have listened, replacing community and meaningful relationships with substance abuse and casual sex.
The collapse of mediating institutions is a key driver of America’s crisis of meaning. The U.S. surgeon general declared loneliness an epidemic in 2023, and surveys have found that as many as 15 percent of men do not have any close friends. The average man gets married at age 30, effectively extending his adolescence through his 20s.
This crisis has few policy solutions, despite bipartisan rhetoric to the contrary. It requires individuals to get involved locally, through faith communities, volunteering, sports leagues, and other activities.
Nongovernmental solutions are particularly important for conservatives because of the GOP’s new electoral coalition. The young men entering the Republican coalition still have spent most of their lives marinating in progressive institutions. This leads them to the cultural libertinism of progressivism. As a result, they are unlikely to support state action on social issues.
Much has been written about the “Barstool conservative” phenomenon, and a series of referenda paint a mixed picture. Although Florida and both North and South Dakota rejected recreational marijuana, Nebraskans voted in favor of medical marijuana. Likewise, red states Missouri and Montana enshrined abortion rights in their constitutions; South Dakota and Florida rejected the procedure. Missouri also legalized sports gambling.
Florida’s results deserve special attention. Trump’s home state requires 60 percent support for ballot initiatives to become law. Both the marijuana and abortion referenda cleared 56 percent support, even though they did not reach the supermajority threshold. Governor Ron DeSantis’s affiliated political action committees spent millions of dollars opposing the initiatives.
The perpetually pot-smoking Portnoy, of course, offered his support. “Freedom. It’s about freedom,” he said. “Half the states allow this. Legal marijuana. Florida. I want to be able to watch football, eat pizza, and smoke. We’re all adults here. Twenty-one plus. Make your own decisions.”
Adult human beings do have freedom. But the American conservative movement has understood for more than half a century that freedom must be used responsibly. Unfortunately, young men are not rising to the occasion.
Bans on gambling, drugs, and abortion are well worth pursuing in the long-term for conservatives. However, these policy responses should be the goals of a cultural shift that emphasizes community, personal accountability, and self-sacrifice. Many of the institutions that have historically inculcated these virtues have struggled to keep members, while others have capitulated to the progressive spirit of the age.
Late 19th and 20th century organizations like the Lions and Elks rooted men in their communities through volunteer work and connected them to each other through membership expectations. They fostered self-governance and community support while also providing social benefits. Most important, these institutions let men know that they were needed and had an integral role to play in society.
Men are still needed as husbands, fathers, and neighbors, even as the modern welfare and administrative state has taken over many communal activities. Many young men do recognize that something higher is out there for them. Generation Z men attend church at higher rates than their female counterparts, while the more secular version of self-improvement promoted by podcasters like Jordan Peterson and Jocko Willink maintains broad appeal. Men and women alike have flocked to running clubs, with the New York and Boston marathons seeing record participation.
Conservatives should cheer on these developments and double down on calls for spiritual, physical, and communal renewal. If we do not promote civil society solutions to the issues facing young men, the GOP will continue its leftward drift on social issues. Republicans can have Ron DeSantis or Dave Portnoy, but they can’t have both.